LONDON/HONG KONG (Reuters) – HSBC’s <HSBA.L> global equities chief Hossein Zaimi is leaving the bank, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Friday, in the latest revamp of the lender’s troubled investment banking operations.
Hong-Kong-based Zaimi, who has worked at HSBC for more than 16 years, took up a supplementary position as co-global head of securities financing in March, shortly after the bank unveiled plans to shrink its Global Banking & Markets division and axe tens of thousands of jobs.
Zaimi could not immediately be reached for comment. A spokesman for HSBC declined to comment.
Zaimi’s exit is expected to be followed by other departures in Asia in the coming weeks, showing that Chief Executive Noel Quinn’s cost-saving drive is extending to some of the bank’s most profitable markets.
Until now, the bulk of HSBC’s headcount cuts have come in Europe and its global headquarters in London’s Canary Wharf.
HSBC had originally postponed restructuring of its 235,000-strong workforce in March, citing the extraordinary circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On June 16, it told staff it would resume its programme for redundancies as part of a plan to streamline its global footprint, boost earnings and compete more strongly with rivals, many of which have delivered more attractive returns to shareholders in recent years.
Adrian Lewis, the bank’s Equity Capital Markets head in EMEA, has also decided to quit to pursue opportunities outside the banking industry, one of the sources said.
Andrew Robinson, head of EMEA equity syndicate, will succeed Lewis and report to Ed Sankey, who took charge of global ECM in June last year.
Lewis’ move was first reported by IFR.
(Reporting by Sinead Cruise in London and Sumeet Chatterjee in Hong Kong, editing by Karin Strohecker and John Stonestreet)
